Jurgen Kantner

Jurgen Kantner (1946-26 February 2017) was a German sailing enthusiast who was captured, held hostage, and beheaded by the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group in the Philippines.

Biography
Jurgen Kantner was born in Germany in 1946, and he was known to be a sailing enthusiast. In 2008, Kantner and his wife Sabine Merz were held hostage by al-Shabaab for 52 days while sailing off the coast of Somalia, and they were released after a six-figure ransom had been paid to the group. In 2016, they would again be takken hostage while cruising a dangerous area of the Philippine, with Abu Sayyaf militants killing his wife as she attempted to protect herself with a shotgun. Kantner's captors demanded $854,000 from the Philippine government, but the government had a no-ransom policy. Kantner eventually fell ill, leading to Abu Sayyaf deciding to execute him. On 26 February 2017, he was beheaded by Abu Sayyaf militants using a large curved knife at a jungle clearing in Buanza district, Indanan town, Sulu.